The Story of Us
by WanderingWriter888
Summary: How the Rossi-Hotchner family came to be. Warning, will contain spanking/corporal punishment of a minor in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_**This is my first story, so reviews are much appreciated. The story will eventually contain spanking or corporal punishment of a minor. If that is not your thing, then please stop reading.**_

_**The story is a bit AU. It's not so AU that it will have aliens or zombies, but it definitely is not canon.**_

_**For the purposes of this universe, Jack Hotchner does not exist.**_

* * *

Once upon a time, there were two men named Aaron and David. They were introduced in their younger years and had cultivated a long and strong relationship, first as co-workers and then as friends. As the years went by, their friendship gradually deepened into something more. Both had tried to live by the rules of society; they had tried to have 'normal' relationships with the opposite sex but they could never seem to make it work. After their marriages fell apart (more than once for Dave), they finally admitted to themselves that they were much more attracted to each other than they were to anyone else and, once they finally acted on their feelings, they each knew they were with their soul mate.

Their love sustained them through the good times and bad. While some of their family members stood by them as they declared their intense feelings for each other, others saw their love as an abominable life choice and refused to have any part of it. This saddened both David and Aaron, but their true friends and family stood by them and helped celebrate many joyous occasions in their lives; they almost made up for the missing, close-minded family members.

Like most couples, Aaron and David desired a child. They both had demanding jobs that required them to go toe-to-toe with the worst elements of society and they knew they needed a bright light in their lives to keep the darkness at bay. They understood that it would be time consuming and expensive to conceive a child, and that much of society was against the idea of them becoming parents, but neither of them had ever really cared about what other people thought of them, or their lives, so that wasn't much of a factor in their decision. Thankfully, since they both made good livings in their respective jobs at the BAU, and David was an accomplished author, money was not a barrier, so they had their pick of surrogate mothers and, as luck would have it, conception occurred early in the process…

"Let me help you, Anne," Aaron said as he came around to the front passenger side of the SUV. He held out his hand, and the large pregnant woman grasped it and hauled herself out of the vehicle with a groan.

"I can't believe I'm going to get even bigger," she grumbled as Dave joined them and they began making their way into the large medical complex. "I'm seven and a half months along and I'm a frigging whale! How is that even possible? I've eaten more healthy food in the last six months than I have in my entire life!"

Dave grinned as the woman checked in with the medical assistant at the front desk and then sat down heavily to wait for her doctor to call her. "Well, I'm not an expert," he said, "But maybe it has to do with that baby you're hauling around?"

"All I know is that you'd better start saving your pennies now guys, because your son is a healthy eater; God help you when he's a teenager!"

"Anne Meadows?" The nurse called out. The pregnant woman once again struggled to her feet with help from the two men. They watched as she walked down the hallway and waited for the nurse to call them back.

XXX

Twenty minutes later, after the doctor had finished the exam, Dave and Aaron were in the exam room getting an update on the pregnancy.

"Anne is in excellent health," Dr. Cantor told them as she stood next to the mother-to-be. "Her weight is perfect, her blood work all looks great, and everything else looks fine."

Both men exhaled twin sighs of relief at that. "So there's no indication of any more pre-term labor?" Hotch asked hesitantly. A month previous, the surrogate mother had started contracting. Luckily, a round of drugs and an overnight stay in the hospital had stopped the early labor and their son had stayed tucked up inside of her, where he belonged.

"I am not seeing any evidence of labor," the doctor told him as she squeezed a dollop of jelly onto Anne's bare belly. She grabbed the sonogram probe, placed it into the cold goo and, a minute later, a strong heartbeat could be heard throughout the room.

"That's our kid, Aaron," Dave said breathlessly, as he gripped Anne's hand and watched the screen.

"I can't believe it," he responded in awe, as he stared at the grainy picture of their baby.

The doctor gave them a moment to savor what they were hearing and seeing before speaking. "Like mom here, your baby also looks very healthy. As Anne can attest to, she is quite mobile, her size is right where we want it to be, and I don't see any birth defects. In short, your daughter is perfect."

"Hey doc, I think you're reading your notes wrong; we're having a son," Dave said absently as he continued to stare at the screen.

The doctor's brow furrowed as she took a second look at the sonogram monitor. "No, you're definitely having a girl. Otherwise, your son would be missing a pretty important part of his anatomy."

That got both Dave and Aaron's attention and they tore their eyes away from the machine and focused on the doctor. "But the last time we were here, they told us it was a boy," Hotch told her. "Did something happen in the meantime? Could this be a birth defect?" A million horrible thoughts sped through his mind as the doctor flipped through the medical file. Her furrowed brow suddenly smoothed as she began nodding to herself.

"I see what happened," she told them. "The sonogram technician who performed the last scan was new and she must have misread it. It's lucky you got me today, otherwise you would have had a major surprise in the delivery room."

Both men wore similar looks of shock on their faces and, without knowing it, the same thought was racing across both of their minds. 'What the hell are we going to do with a girl?'

XXX  
Two hours later, after they had dropped Anne off at her apartment, the two men arrived home and beelined it straight to the liquor cabinet.

"What in the hell are we going to do with a girl, Aaron?" Dave asked, finally voicing their unspoken question, after taking a more than healthy swig of scotch.

Hotch followed suit and took a large draw of his drink before answering quietly, "I have no idea."

"We're two guys for Chrissake!" Rossi declared, a little hysterically. "We're gay! What do we know about girls?"

"I believe all of our ex-wives would agree what you just said," Hotch agreed dryly as he raised his glass in a mock toast to his statement.

Dave glared at his husband for a moment. "Would you please join me in my hysteria for a minute? How can you be so calm? The idea of having a kid was scary enough when we thought it was a boy, but a girl? At least with a son we would have had been able to draw on our own experiences to help guide him through his own, but that idea is out the window now!"

"Can you imagine the awkward conversations we are going to have to have with her?"

"Jesus," Rossi breathed as he took another gulp of his drink. "I never even thought about that.

Hotch nodded grimly. "Dating. Puberty. Why she has two daddies. Sex."

"I am officially, here and now, calling _not it_ to all of those discussions," Dave told his lover firmly. "Well, except for the dating one. That talk will be short; no dating, ever. End of story."

"You'll see just how quickly my calm demeanor will fade if you even _try_ to stick me with those moments, Dave," Hotch said quietly but forcefully. "We'll BOTH be sitting through those  
horrifying talks, understand?"

Dave, not wanting to make matters worse than they already were, nodded grimly as he refilled his drink. Since it was a Friday, and neither of them had to be back at the office until Monday, they decided the best way to handle the issue was to get drunk and see if it helped in any way.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for all of the reviews for the first chapter! A little more backstory in this chapter, and then we'll meet their daughter.

* * *

At nine o'clock the next morning, which both Dave and Aaron considered an ungodly hour considering they had fallen asleep/passed out in alcohol induced stupors only five hours previous, the doorbell rang.

"Who in the hell could that be?" Dave growled into his pillow, which he had thrown over his head to block out the noise.

"No idea, but could you go check before they decide to ring the bell again?" His lover asked in a strangled voice.

"Why me?"

"Because there is a very real possibility that I am going to throw up the second I move from this bed, and I would rather not do it right in the face of whomever it is who is ringing our doorbell. So could you _please _go answer it?" Dave looked over at Aaron and saw that he was an unnatural shade of green and he was swallowing very heavily.

"You owe me," he growled. Hotch nodded his appreciation and that small movement did him in. In a flash, he was out of the bed and running for the toilet. A minute later, just as the doorbell rang again, Dave could hear the sounds of heaving coming from the bathroom.

"Damn kid, can't hold his damn liquor," he grumbled as he made his way down the stairs. As he approached the door, the bell rang for a third time. "Hold your goddamn horses!" He shouted as he opened the door. On the other side of it stood an amused Emily Prentiss.

"You look like death warmed over," she told him with a grin.

Dave just glared at her. "What in the hell are you doing here, Prentiss?" He growled.

Emily laughed as she pushed past him and into the house. "Your glare is getting better, but you'll need to practice more before it's as scary as Hotch's." She entered the kitchen and found herself face to face with the man she'd just been talking about. "See, now _that's _intimidating," she told the older man as she pointed at his lover.

"What's going on Prentiss? Do we have a case?" Hotch asked in a gravelly voice. Dave pushed him into a chair, poured a glass of water, and handed it to him.

"Nope," she said as she sat down across the table from him. "I was just wondering how the two of you were handling the idea that you won't be teaching your child how to pee standing up."

Hotch nearly dropped the now empty glass in his hand. "How did you find out about that? We didn't go back to the BAU and we haven't told anyone yet!"

"Exactly. Did you really expect Penelope Garcia to just sit on her hands after you didn't return?" Emily asked incredulously.

"What did she do, hack into Anne's medical records?" Dave asked. When Emily didn't meet his eyes, he knew he had his answer. "She did, didn't she!"

"She knows that's illegal, right?" Hotch asked angrily. "Hacking into medical records is a-" His tirade was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell

"Who the fuck is THAT?" Rossi asked loudly, throwing his hands up in the air. "Doesn't anyone fucking call before coming over anymore?" He made his way back to the front door, opened it and found his older brother on the other side.

"Tony? What in the hell are YOU doing here?"

"Well that's a wonderful greeting, little brother," the older man said as he embraced him. "What can I tell you, I got a call from the Godmother telling me there may be a problem, so I decided to hightail it down here." Tony was a retired FDNY firefighter who did freelance fire safety consulting in New York. As a result, he made his own schedule and could come to DC when needed.

"I should have known Emily was behind this," Dave grumbled as he stood aside to let his big brother into the house.

"I also brought some of Sarah's things with me; I thought you could use them."

"You didn't have to do that, Tony," Dave said softly. Fifteen years previous, Tony had been rushing his heavily pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth when they were hit by a drunk driver. Both his wife and his soon-to-be born daughter Sarah died in the crash. It had been touch and go with Tony for awhile, but he pulled through. He'd never remarried and he remained childless, but Dave knew he would have made a wonderful father, which is why he and Aaron had asked him to be their child's Godfather.

"I did have to," his brother argued. "I want to know that the clothes and toys will go to good use. Besides, I've left the nursery as a shrine for the past fifteen years; it's time to move on."

"Thanks man."

"It's fine Davie, really," Tony said as they entered the kitchen. "Ah, there's the other daddy and the Godmother. How're you doing, sweetheart?" He asked as he pulled Emily into a bone crushing embrace.

"I'm good Tony; thanks for coming down."

"I needed to make sure these two guys were okay with the news. Apparently I was too late," he said as he released her and looked at the obviously hung over couple.

"What?" Hotch asked his brother-in-law irritably as the older man clapped him on the back in a brotherly gesture.

"Really? All of this just because you're getting a different flavor of kid than you expected?"

Hotch huffed. "Look, I'll admit that we handled the news less than admirably, but you have to understand, we had plans! We had gotten used to the fact that we'd have a kid who was a lot like we are. We're two guys, how are we going to handle a girl?"

"You're going to treat her just like you would've treated your son," Tony told them. "Sure, it's not going to be 100% easy, but that's why you picked such a superb Godfather."

Emily nodded. "And you'll have a Godmother nearby to help you out. Face it guys, you're making a mountain out of a mole hill."

"She's right you know," Dave said to his lover.

"I know; it was just a shock," Hotch said, ashamed of the way he'd originally felt at the idea of having a daughter instead of a son.

"That's why we're here to help," Emily told him. "First thing we need to do is change the bedroom; you have it dark blue with a baseball theme."

"What do you propose we do, paint it pink?"

"Hell no!" Emily responded. "Just because you're having a daughter doesn't mean it has to look like Barbie threw up in it! I have some cans of light purple paint in my car; that's a good, gender-neutral color for her room."

"Does the family know about that I'm having a daughter instead of a son?" Dave asked his brother, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

Tony looked uncomfortable. "They do. Ma sends her regards-"

"But she's not coming down once the baby is born." Dave finished, knowing his mother's feeling about his new lifestyle.

His brother shook his head. "No, she isn't, but dad is going to try to make it down for a few days. Cath…well, Cath is still thinking about it. I'm sure she'll eventually come around, little brother." Catherine Rossi-Marsh was Dave's twin sister and she was a very devout Catholic. She had been trying to wrap her mind around the idea of a gay twin, but she was having trouble and it was hurtful for Dave.

Tony stood up. "Okay, let's get some coffee into these scraggly looking bastards and then we have a nursery to paint."

xxx

Later that night, after the Godparents had left, Dave and Aaron sat on the floor of the nursery going through the boxes of clothes Tony had given them.

"This is adorable," Dave said, holding up a small pink dress.

"So are these," Aaron said with a smile as he held up the tiny matching sandals.

Dave continued to stare at the dress for a moment before lifting his head. "We can do this, right?"

"You mean raise a daughter?"

"No, I mean raise a kid in general. You had an abusive father growing up, and most of my family won't talk to me because of the decisions I've made as an adult. I don't want to screw a kid up."

"We won't," Aaron said firmly. "Between the two of us, your brother, Emily, and the team, we're going to have more help raising this kid than we ever could've imagined. If anything, we're going to have too much help. And no matter what, she'll be raised in a house full of love."

"You're damn right she will!" Dave said as he reached into a shopping bag. A moment later a huge grin overtook his face. "Did you see what Emily got us?"

Hotch shook his head, so Dave held up the small onesie; on the front it said 'My Daddies Love Me.'

"It's true; I love her and I haven't even met her yet," Dave said. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, but I feel the same way," Hotch said with a smile.

* * *

_Reviews feed the muse!_


	3. Chapter 3

_**This chapter contains the disciplinary spanking of a minor. If that is not your thing, stop reading.**_

_**I should probably mention that I do not own any part of Criminal Minds.**_

* * *

11 years later…

"Ooooooh, did you see that sign?" Magdeline Rossi-Hotchner exclaimed from the backseat of the SUV. "That church is having their spring carnival this weekend with rides and games! Can we go? Please, please, please, please, _please_?" She begged. She would use her puppy dog eyes, which she knew both of her fathers couldn't resist, but they were facing front and couldn't see her. She considered that to be a blessing considering what she was doing in the backseat.

"If we don't get called on a case, we'll try to make it there, okay Magpie?" Dave said, using his nickname for his daughter.

Magdeline, or Maggie as everyone called her, nodded enthusiastically. She was used to plans being changed or cancelled at the last minute and she generally rolled with the punches.

"You want to see if Lizzie and Sarah want to go with us, Maggie May?" Hotch asked as he navigated the DC Beltway in morning rush hour traffic. His nickname for his daughter came from the classic rock song from Rod Stewart, which was one of his favorites. Neither of them had even considered the name Magdeline when thinking about names for their daughter, but their surrogate mother had suggested it during one of their many baby naming arguments, and it had stuck. They had originally planned for the surrogate mother to be a larger part of their daughter's life, but her life was cut tragically short by cancer only two years after giving birth to Maggie. While her death was tragic, Anne hadn't been Maggie's biological mother. No, they had used an anonymous egg donor in order to make things a bit easier on Anne.

"Really? That would be so much fun, thanks dad!" Maggie said enthusiastically. Hotch wisely had not suggested she invite her third best friend, Fiona. Fiona's parents had made it very clear to him and Dave that they thought 'gay' was code for 'perverted.' They wouldn't allow their daughter to spend time in the two men's presence but, thankfully, they allowed Maggie to be friends with their daughter. While it didn't thrill either man knowing their daughter spent time with homophobes, they knew she needed stable friendships.

"What are you working on back there?"

Crap! The jig was up! Maggie had tried hard not to show her dads that she was doing schoolwork in the backseat, but her dad had caught her anyway. It didn't surprise her much; both of her dads seemed to be able to read her mind and it was like they knew when she was going to misbehave before she even did it. She decided to play it off as no big deal.

"This?" She asked innocently. "Oh, I forgot that my book report was due today, so I'm just finishing it up."

Hotch's eyes narrowed as he looked at her in the rearview mirror. "Is that the same book report I asked you about last night? The one you assured me was finished so I would let you watch TV?" He asked sternly.

"Yeah, but I only have a little left and it was a good episode of my show!"

"Do I have to tell you that's the same thing as lying to me?"

"No," she said looking down at the floor and kicking lightly at the carpet.

"And are you allowed to watch TV before your homework is done?"

"No."

"No, you're not," Hotch affirmed. "And you're going spend some time over my knee at bedtime tonight to reinforce that rule."

Maggie's head jerked up at that. "But dad! My homework is almost done!"

"I don't care, it should have been done last night."

"That's not fair! It's a stupid rule! What if a really good show is on at 5:00pm, huh? That means I would have to do it practically at school!"

"Hey," Dave cut in. "Keep arguing, and I'll warm your panties right now and your dad will still take care of the homework thing before bed tonight."

Maggie flopped back in her seat, folded her arms across her chest, glared at the back of his head and grumbled to herself in, what she thought, was too low of a volume for them to hear. "Dumb rule…wanna watch TV…hate school…stupid book…"

"Aaron, pull over at the next exit," Dave said. It was an empty threat, he would never embarrass his daughter by spanking her in public, but she didn't know that.

"No, it's okay, I'll stop!" Maggie said in alarm; apparently she had been louder than she thought. She watched anxiously as they approached the exit ramp and then breathed a sigh of relief when they passed it.

Ten minutes later, they were at her school dropping her off. "Be good today, Magpie," Dave said as he kissed the top of her head.

"I will, daddy," she said a bit sullenly.

"I'd better not get a call from your teacher telling me you didn't turn in your book report," Hotch warned.

"Yeah, yeah," was her answer as she walked toward the school building. She didn't know how she was going to finish her book report by the time the bell rang, but she knew she had to or she would be in even deeper trouble with her parents.

**Xxx**

Later that night, Maggie breathed a sigh of relief; her dads seemed to have forgotten what had happened that morning and that was fine with her. It helped that she had been on her best behavior since the bus dropped her off at the FBI headquarters that afternoon. The daycare there had afterschool programs for kids through middle school and Dave and Aaron took full advantage of the award winning program and their extended hours.

After her dads had picked her up from daycare, they'd gone home and had a barbeque on the deck in the backyard. She helped make the salad, she set the picnic table and she helped clean up afterwards. After dinner, she and her dads played catch and she used the old baseball mitt that her dad had used when he played baseball in college. Once it got too dark to see the ball, they moved into the house and all watched a movie together. Maggie liked watching movies with her dads because they usually let her sit between them on the couch and it made her feel safe and it was comfy. Also, since it was a Friday, they let her stay up a little later than normal to watch the movie. As soon as it was over, she yawned loudly.

"I think it's bedtime for somebody," Dave said as he tickled her ribs. She gave a shriek of laughter as she jumped up to get away from him.

"Stop it, daddy," she said through her giggles. "I'm not tired."

"Why don't you get ready for bed?" Hotch made it sound like a suggestion, but she really didn't have a choice in the matter; it was getting late and it was bedtime. "We'll be there in a few minutes but if you're ready before we get up there, I want you to find a corner and stand in it."

Maggie whipped her head around and looked at him in surprise. "Sweetheart, we still have to deal with what happened this morning," he said gently. "I promised you a spanking at bedtime and that's what you're going to get. Now get upstairs; we'll be up shortly."

The girl knew that if she argued, the spanking would be worse, so she kept silent but she couldn't help stomping loudly all the way up the stairs.

"When her anger comes through like that? That's when I know she's yours," Hotch told his lover.

Dave snorted, "Yeah, well, when she's able to argue her way out of something by using lawyer logic? That's when I know she's yours." Neither man knew which of them was Maggie's biological father. In order to conceive her, they'd taken sperm from both Dave and Aaron, mixed them together and used the mixture to fertilize the donor egg. That way, neither of them was her 'real' father more than the other.

"This is the worst part of being a parent," Hotch sighed. "Having to discipline her."

"I know," Dave nodded, "But we have to do it; she needs structure and accountability in her life."

"You're right. Well I suppose I should go get this over with," Aaron said as both he and Dave stood up.

Meanwhile, up in her bedroom, Maggie was changing into her nightgown when an idea struck her. Her dad didn't seem very mad, so he would probably spank her over her nightgown; that meant he wouldn't know how many pairs of underpants she was wearing! She quickly crossed over to her dresser and opened the top drawer. Score! One of her dads must have done her laundry recently because the drawer was filled with panties. She quickly started pulling on pair after pair and she had just stepped into her sixth pair when she heard footsteps on the stairs. In a flash, she pulled them up, dropped the back of her nightgown and ran into the corner. She had just faced the wall when she heard the door open.

"All set, Mags?" Dave asked.

"Uh huh," she said as she turned away from the corner.

"Good girl" he said as he kissed the top of her head and gave her a quick hug. "Goodnight honey."

"Goodnight daddy," she said.

Dave gave Hotch a look that said 'good luck,' and then left the room. Unless it was something serious that required both of them there to make a point, both of them usually didn't stay in the room while their daughter was getting a spanking. They didn't want it to seem like they were ganging up on her and they didn't want to needlessly embarrass her.

As soon as the door shut behind Dave, Aaron sat down on the bed and called his daughter over to him. She stood in front of him with her head down, already sniffling back tears.

"You understand why you're getting a spanking, right?" Hotch asked his daughter. She nodded at the floor and then looked up at him.

" 'Cause I told you my homework was done when it wasn't," she said and then tried a last ditch effort. "But I get it now dad, you don't have to spank me. I've learned my lesson, I promise!"

"Well I'm glad you understand what you did was wrong, but you're still getting a spanking," her dad told her as he gently pulled her around to his right side. As he tipped her over his knee, Maggie prayed that he wouldn't lift her nightgown because then the jig would be up, and if he saw how many pairs of panties she was wearing, she had no doubt that he would remove all of them and spank her bare.

Hotch knew his daughter didn't think what she had done was a big deal and, in the whole scheme of things, it wasn't, but she'd done it before and he wanted to try to stop her from doing it again, which is why he felt a spanking was necessary. It didn't need to be a particularly long or hard spanking, so he left her nightgown where it was and raised his hand.

Smack! Smack! Smack! 'Sweet,' Maggie thought as she stared at the carpet beneath her face. 'It worked! It doesn't even sting!'

As Hotch brought his hand down on his daughter's bottom, he knew something was off. First, her seat was much cushier than usual; it was as if she was wearing a diaper. And second, she didn't seem to be reacting to the smacks. Normally she tried to hold out on crying for as long as possible, but she usually wriggled around like a fish out of water from the start.

"What the-" he said as he raised her nightgown and then stopped in the middle of his sentence. "What's this?" He asked rhetorically.

"Um, my panties?" Maggie said, looking over her shoulder.

"How many pairs?"

"I dunno," she said petulantly as she stared daggers into floor beneath her. Damn! He'd caught on and now her ass was literally grass.

"Well let's count, shall we?" Her dad asked as he reached for the first pair of panties. A moment later, 5 pairs had been pulled down and she was praying that he left the sixth, and final pair up where they belonged. Her hopes faded as she felt him grasp the waistband of the last pair.

"Did you really think this was a good idea?" He asked.

"You never told me I _couldn't _wear 6 pairs of underwear!"

Hotch, who had been about to pull down the last pair and resume spanking her on her bare bottom, stopped and thought for a minute. Truthfully, a part of him was a tiny bit proud of her ingenuity and the logic of her argument, so he left them in place.

"I am telling you, right now, you should only wear one pair of panties. Got it?" He saw her nod her head. "Good; you're lucky you're keeping this pair on. If you pull something like this again, not only will all of the panties come down, you'll get a spanking per day for each of the pairs you put on." With that, he resumed smacking her bottom and this time he got a reaction out of her.

Maggie felt the smacks rain down on her butt and there was definitely a sting this time. She kicked her legs and wriggled around; even though he wasn't spanking her hard and she had a layer between her dad's hand and her skin, the spanks still burned like fire and she desperately wanted it to end. After a minute of continuous spanks, she shed her first tears. Thankfully for her, the spanking only went on for another ten seconds after that and, after smacking her sit spots a couple of times, her dad stopped the spanking and lowered her nightgown back down over her burning bottom.

"No more lying about homework, okay?" He said gently as he helped her stand. As soon as she was on her feet, her hands flew to her butt and she rubbed it to try to put out the fire. She knew her dad was waiting for an answer, so she nodded through her tears. He tried giving her a hug, but she pulled away; she didn't want comfort, she just wanted to be by herself. He didn't take her actions personally. He knew that half the time after a spanking she wanted comfort and half of the time she wanted solitude, so he helped her into bed where she laid on her stomach and he tucked her in, setting her favorite stuffed bear next to her.

"Can we still go to the carnival tomorrow?" She asked as she snaked her arm around the stuffed animal and cried her last tears.

"Of course," her dad said. He and Dave used spanking as their primary discipline for her and, normally, they did not add more punishment to it. Of course, if she did something really serious, or she kept repeatedly doing things she knew were wrong, they would tack on a grounding or extra chores, but her offense today had been mild and he saw no reason to take away the carnival.

Hotch smoothed down her hair in a loving gesture. "Goodnight Maggie May, I love you."

She just sniffled into her pillow and didn't say anything back to him. It stung him a bit, but he had just been smacking her butt so he didn't really expect her to be happy with him right now. He silently left her room, closing the door behind him.

**Xxx**

Later that night, both Dave and Aaron were awakened by a loud crash of thunder. "We're going to have company in about ten seconds," Dave murmured tiredly. Sure enough, by the time they got to the count of seven, there was a frantic knocking at their bedroom door.

"Come in," Aaron called out, proud that even during a scary thunderstorm, their daughter still remembered their cardinal rule about knocking before entering their bedroom.

The door burst open and their daughter flew in, clutching Mr. Bear. "Can I sleep in here?" She asked as she stood at the foot of the bed. Both men nodded simultaneously and she scrambled to the top of the bed and then buried herself under the covers between them. Dave fell back to sleep within minutes and his snoring could be heard clearly in the room.

With the next crack of thunder, Maggie clung to Hotch's side and he could feel her shaking. "It's okay baby," he said as he rubbed her back.

"I don't like thunderstorms," she said shakily. "What if there is a tornado?"

He kissed the top of her head. "Tornadoes happen a lot in the Midwest and down South, but we don't get them much here, so I don't think you have to worry."

"But what if lightning strikes the house?" She said, snuggling closer to him as another loud crack of thunder penetrated the air.

"You're safe here baby, okay? Your daddy and I will protect you." He felt her nod her head against his chest and she became quiet. After a few minutes, he was almost asleep again when he heard her whisper, "I love you dad."

He smiled in the darkness and hugged her a little tighter to him. "I love you too Mags, always and forever."


	4. Chapter 4

"So we were walking past all of the games at the carnival, and we passed this one guy who had some kind of shooting game," Maggie told Emily. It was six-thirty and Maggie's after school program ended at six, so that meant she had to wait in one of her dad's offices until they were ready to leave for the day. It wasn't an ideal situation, and both Dave and Hotch tried to make sure one of them left with Maggie by six, but sometimes it could not be avoided. Besides, the after school program was only two days per week, so it wasn't as if she was at headquarters late every day.

"So the guy asked dad if he wanted to win a stuffed animal for 'the little lady,' and he meant me," Maggie continued, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the nickname. She was almost eleven years old, and she hated when anyone referred to her as young, or little, or babyish. It had taken all of her restraint not to kick the carnie right in the shin. "And you know dad, he was polite and said no. So then, the carnival creep told him not to worry, that shooting games were not for everyone, and then he clucked like a chicken!"

"Oh God," Emily said with a grin as she imagined the alpha male's reaction to the carnie's insinuation.

"Dad turned to the guy and gave him that…look; you know, the one that says 'you're dead meat'?"

"I know it well," Dave murmured from his desk; he had been on the receiving end of that look more times than he could count. Maybe not as much as their feisty daughter, but enough times for that look to make his blood run cold.

Maggie grinned knowingly at her dad as she continued the story. "So after dad basically killed the guy with his look, he plopped $5 on the counter, picked up the puny little BB gun and knocked over five of the moving targets almost without looking! He won me a monkey that's bigger than I am!"

Emily laughed, "How did you get it out of the carnival?" She asked, visions of Rossi or Hotch walking with a giant gorilla on their backs.

"I had to carry it," Maggie told her. "Because after dad hit all of the targets, then daddy had to prove HE could do it too, so he won a giant teddy bear for Lizzie."

Emily arched an eyebrow in Dave's direction. "What?" He asked rhetorically. "I couldn't let Hotch, and everyone else, think he's a better shot than me."

"I thought dad and daddy were going to get kicked out by security when they started arguing over who was going to win Sarah a stuffed animal, but since daddy was still holding the air rifle, he won!"

"So let me get this straight," Emily began, again looking at Dave. "You and Hotch walked out of a carnival with three tween girls and three life-sized stuffed animals? I would have sold my freaking SOUL to have a picture of that!"

"We all barely fit in the car!" Maggie exclaimed. "I wish you had been there."

"Me too, honey," the older woman replied. "But I had a family thing to attend."

"How's the Ambassador?" Maggie had only met Emily's mother a few times but, surprisingly, they had hit it off.

"She's good; she's going to be in the States for awhile and she wants to spend 'quality time' with me." Emily couldn't help but wrinkle her nose in annoyance and it made the tween laugh. She was about to say something to the older woman, but her daddy interrupted.

"Mags," he said, looking up from his computer. "Why does your teacher want to see your dad and I tomorrow afternoon?"

Maggie's smile fell and was replaced by a look of apprehension. "I dunno," she said as she squirmed in her seat and looked at the floor in order to her escape her father's skeptical look. "I don't!" She exclaimed loudly after Dave didn't say anything for a full minute. When she finally met his eyes, he saw they were full of apprehension, so he knew something important must have occurred.

"Obviously _something_ happened, or she wouldn't want to have a parent/teacher conference with us," Dave told her.

"Maybe she wants to tell you how good I've been!" Dave mentally rolled his eyes at his daughter's suggestion; while he and Aaron loved her to pieces, she was a spirited girl and he highly doubted her teacher wanted to see them to report on her terrific behavior. No, something big had happened and he wanted to be able to gear up for the meeting ahead of time.

"Magpie, I don't want to walk into this meeting blind; if you tell me what happened now, it will go easier on all of us tomorrow." He was offering her an out, an easier punishment if she came clean now but, unfortunately, she didn't take it.

The eleven year old's eyes filled with tears and she said, "I don't know what she wants to talk to you about, daddy. Honest."

Dave knew he wasn't going to get any more out of her, and he was about to let it drop when his lover walked into his office. "Hey, do you know why Maggie's teacher wants to see us tomorrow?" Hotch asked, not seeing his daughter on the sofa.

"No idea, and our daughter doesn't seem to know either," Dave told him, gesturing toward the girl.

"Maggie," Hotch began sternly, as he saw the guilt written all over her face.

"I DON'T KNOW WHY!" Maggie yelled, startling both of her fathers. Emily knew her goddaughter was about to get into a whole mess of trouble, none of it having to do with the teacher's conference request, so she stood up and motioned for the girl to follow.

"Come on Mags, I have a bag of Twizzlers at my desk." Maggie was a Twizzlers fiend and she gladly followed her godmother out of the room, happy to get the candy and to escape the interrogation by her fathers.

"What do you think it's about?" Hotch asked as he sank into one of the visitor's chairs across from Dave's desk.

The older man shrugged his shoulders. "With Maggie? Who knows."

"I have meetings at the Hoover Building in the city all day tomorrow; can you handle the conference?"

"Sure," Dave responded.

"Call me afterwards to let me know what happened and how we'll have to deal with the aftermath."

Dave smiled. "She suggested that maybe her teacher wants to tell us how good she is."

Hotch chuckled. "Maggie? Seriously? I love our daughter with all of my heart and I would gladly die for her, but no, I don't see that ever happening. Do you?"

"Not a chance."

**Xxx**

The next day, Maggie was on pins and needles. She had a pretty good idea what her teacher had called her parents about and she knew the offense wouldn't go over well at home. No, both her dad and her daddy would _not _be pleased and she knew she should enjoy sitting down while she still could.

When the final bell rang for the day, Maggie shot out of her seat like a bullet and almost ran for the classroom door; she wanted to be WELL out of the building before her dads got there. Unfortunately, as soon as she opened the door, she ran into something solid, and that something solid was one of her fathers.

"Daddy!" She said in surprise, as he took her arm to keep her from falling backwards. He led her away from the door so the other students could leave the classroom. "What are you doing here?"

"We have a conference with your teacher, remember?"

Of course she remembered, she hadn't been able to think about anything else all day, but that wasn't what she meant. "But why are you here so early? I thought you would come after work."

Dave shrugged. "I took the afternoon off. I figured once we're done here, we can head home for the rest of the day."

"But what about Ingrid?" Ingrid was a third year college student who took care of Maggie on the afternoons when she wasn't in her program at Quantico, and when her dads went out of town. She had been Maggie's regular baby sitter for over a year and the two girls got along very well. She had impressed both Dave and Aaron with her child development knowledge during her intense and thorough interview and she had passed their rigorous background check. It helped that they lived close to Georgetown University, where she attended school, and that she planned to complete a master's degree in Child Psychology there after she finished her bachelor's degree.

"I gave her the afternoon off."

"Oh," the ten year old said, knowing that her plan for avoiding her dads until later that afternoon had just been ruined. "Where's dad?" She asked, looking around for her other father.

"He has meetings all day, so it's just you and me," Dave told her.

"Me?!" Maggie squeaked in surprise and apprehension. She _so _did NOT want to be there when her daddy got the report from her teacher. In fact, she wanted to be as far away as possible, maybe the moon?

Dave nodded. "Yup, come on," he instructed her as he took her hand and led her back into the classroom. He found his daughter's teacher sitting behind her desk, grading papers. "Mrs. Miller? I'm David Rossi." Dave had been stuck interviewing a death row prisoner on Maggie's first day of school, so Hotch had been the one to meet the teacher.

The teacher smiled as she slowly got to her feet, her pregnant belly evident once she stood up. "Yes, Mr. Rossi. It's good to meet you; please, have a seat," she said, pointing to an empty desk in the front of the room.

"Are you due soon?" He asked as he settled into a desk. After a moment, Maggie, who had given serious consideration to just running out of the school and fleeing to another country, sat down at a desk next to him. Who was she kidding, her dads were in the FBI; she had no doubt they could find her no matter where she hid.

"In another two months," the teacher said as she settled into a desk chair. "Are we waiting for your husband?" She asked as she rubbed her swollen belly with one hand and opened a file folder with the other.

"Unfortunately, he has meetings all day, so he won't be able to make it."

"Okay, let's get started then," the teacher said, pulling a stapled packet out of the folder. "This is the book report on '_Harriet the Spy'._" She handed him the hand written paper and then continued. "While Maggie is quite smart and turns in high quality work when she wants to, this seemed a little _too_ good for someone her age. I performed a simple Google search and found these." She handed him a stapled packet of Amazon reviews. "As you can see, Maggie copied parts of each of these reviews, word for word, and turned it in as her own work."

"Did she?" Dave asked rhetorically as he read over his daughter's paper, his words clipped. As soon as the pre-teen heard his tone of voice, she knew she was dead.

The teacher nodded. "And when I confronted her about it, she was none too happy with me, and she let me know her feelings very loudly."

Maggie, who was a ball of nerves, felt some of her nervousness turn to anger as she heard the teacher tattle on her to her father. "You don't have to tell him everything!" She said furiously.

Dave, who was not happy with his daughter to begin with, was not at all impressed with the way she had snapped at her teacher. "Corner! Now!" He barked pointing to an empty corner near the teacher's desk.

Maggie glared at him in disbelief for a minute. He couldn't be serious, could he? He really wanted her to stand in the corner, like a little kid, in front of her teacher? He _knew _she hated corner time almost as much as she hated a spanking! There was no WAY she was going to do it at her school! She was about to open her mouth to argue, but the look in her dad's eye stopped her, so she grumbled to herself before stomping over to the aforementioned corner. With a loud huff, she planted her nose near the intersection of the walls and listened as her father and teacher talked about her.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Miller. Maggie knows she's not allowed to speak to adults that way, _especially_ not her teacher. My husband and I take that very seriously and, believe me, we will be having a very long discussion with her about that tonight."

"Believe me, Mr. Rossi, your daughter's rant is not the worst I've ever heard from a student. In fact, Maggie is generally very well-behaved," the teacher said. "She sometimes lets her mouth run away from her, but she's normally respectful toward me. Your daughter is also very bright, one of the brightest in my class, but she's also the most frustrating."

"The most frustrating?"

The teacher nodded her head. "Yes sir. Maggie, while intelligent, does the bare minimum of work. I'm sure you've notice her report card is mostly C's?"

"I have," Dave said. Their daughter's schoolwork had been a minor point of contention between him and Aaron; Aaron believing she could do much better in school and Dave not wanting to push her too hard.

"Here is some of her math homework," Mrs. Miller said as she spread out some of Maggie's worksheets; worksheets that had only half of the answers filled in. The rest had question marks where the answers should have gone. "I have asked her repeatedly if she needs help with the problems, but she says she doesn't, and that is proven by her tests." The teacher laid out tests with scores in the 90's. "As you can see, she knows the material, but she does not want to put forth the effort of doing her homework." Dave stared at the work dumbfounded; the teacher was right, Maggie couldn't be bothered to do her required homework.

"Not only that," the teacher continued, "But during our last spelling bee, I randomly chose a word that I KNOW Maggie could spell, in fact she had just gotten the word right on her spelling test, but she misspelled it badly during the bee. I asked her about it afterwards and she told me she didn't want kids to think she was 'some loser bookworm'."

"Well I don't!" Maggie said indignantly from her position in the corner. "Nerds are SO uncool!"

"Magdeline, are you allowed to talk when you're in the corner?" Dave asked sternly and his daughter could hear the annoyance in his voice, so she just gave a loud sigh, stamped her foot a little and shut her mouth. She knew she was coming up to the line when either of her fathers used her full name.

"And then we have the cheating issue for her book report," Mrs. Miller said, as if she was used to being interrupted by students.

Dave just shook his head. "I apologize for that. Her father and I obviously need to check her homework more closely."

"It was a stupid book…too long…dumb cover…"

Dave heard his daughter's mutters from the corner and got up from his chair. He walked over to where she was standing and, in a very soft voice, warned, "One more word from you Maggie and your teacher will find out exactly how we handle discipline in our family." The tween gasped in surprise, and turned red with embarrassment, but she knew her father wasn't joking. No, one more wrong word and she had no doubt he would swat her right there in front of her teacher and she did _not_ want that.

Instead, she stood there and faced the wall quietly for the next fifteen minutes as she listened to her teacher go on and on about missing homework assignments and not working up to her potential. Many times she had wanted to argue points, but her dad's threat stayed with her, so she remained quiet.

She listened as her dad made promises to check her homework more carefully and to help her study for various tests, and she stomped her foot again when she heard her teacher promise to send home weekly progress reports. She finally heard him push his chair back from the desk and thank her teacher for her time. Maggie was relieved to know they would finally be going home but her relief was short-lived when she heard her father speak.

"You can come out of the corner and apologize to your teacher before we go home," he said, but Maggie could tell it was more than a suggestion, it was an order and, since she wanted to preserve as much of her butt as possible, she quickly complied with said order.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Miller," she said, trying to sound as contrite as possible while she looked at the floor. 'Yeah, I'm sorry you had to open your big mouth to my dad!' She wisely didn't say the second part of her apology.

Mrs. Miller looked slightly amused, as if she had read the young girl's mind and knew exactly what she was thinking. "We'll start fresh on Monday, okay? No hard feelings?"

Maggie looked at her teacher and was relieved to know she wouldn't be holding on to the anger over her cheating for the rest of the year. "No hard feelings," she said with a slight smile as she shook the older woman's hand in agreement. Now, if only she could make amends that easily with her father…but she had a hunch her discussion with him at home would be a much longer and painful one and she wasn't looking forward to it at all.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter contains disciplinary spanking of a child. If that's not your thing, quit reading now.**

* * *

As she drove home with her dad, Maggie alternated between staring out the windshield of the car and sneaking glances at her father. Usually she could read his mood, but right now she was having difficulty. Deep down she knew he was angry with her and, if she was truly honest with herself, she knew she was in for one heck of a spanking. Oh, and a lecture; both of her fathers were huge fans at lecturing her. As if he was reading her mind, her father chose that moment to begin speaking.

"You know you're in a large amount of trouble, right?" He asked, glancing over at her. Normally it broke his heart to see her looking so forlorn, but not today. No, today he remembered how she had mouthed off to her teacher. Today he remembered her teacher telling him about her blatant cheating, her lying, and her lack of trying when it came to her education. She would not be able to get out of her punishment simply by giving him her puppy dog eyes this time.

"I know," Maggie replied, looking at him with wide sad eyes. That sometimes worked on her daddy, but not today.

"You can save your sad look, Magpie; it's not going to work on me today." Maggie just huffed and crossed her arms in front of herself. Yeah, that never worked on her dad, but it almost always worked on her daddy. "You wanna knock off the attitude, Little Girl?" Dave continued, his annoyance evident in his voice. "After what your teacher told me and after witnessing your behavior this afternoon, you'll be lucky if you sit comfortably by the time you're 40."

Maggie's eyes widened and she felt her heart beat faster. Thinking she was going to get a spanking was one thing, but actually knowing that your butt's demise was imminent was totally another. "But daddy," she started as they turned into the driveway of their house.

"No buts, Maggie," he said as he pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. "Except for yours, which will be over my knee in about 2 minutes. Let's go inside." He pushed the button to close the garage door and then stepped out of the car. His daughter did the same thing and then waited for him to unlock the door into the house.

The garage door opened into the kitchen and once they were inside, Maggie began silently praying to herself, 'Don't get the wooden spoon. Please don't get the wooden spoon!' To her relief, her daddy passed the cooking utensil drawer and headed for the stairs that led to the second floor. "In case you're wondering," he said as he waited for her at the bottom of the steps, "The only reason I didn't grab the wooden spoon is because the spanking I am about to give you is for the way you spoke to your teacher today. We are going to deal with your cheating and all of the homework you've missed once your dad gets home."

Maggie had focused on the creepy way he had seemed to read her mind once again, and hadn't processed what he had said about the other stuff, but after a few seconds, her brain caught up with the rest of the conversation. "Wait, what?!" She asked as she backed away from the stairs. "You can't spank me twice! It's not fair!"

"No, what's not fair is that I had to listen to my daughter's teacher tell me that my daughter cheated on a big assignment, doesn't turn in her homework, and talks to her disrespectfully! We taught you better than that, Mags! And believe me, we will be talking about that in-depth tonight with your father, but you and I have some business to take care of upstairs," he said. "Let's go."

"No." Maggie said stubbornly as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted at the floor.

Dave sighed impatiently. "Maggie, you can either go up those stairs on your own, or I can go and get the wooden spoon and then carry you up the stairs. The choice is yours." He gave her a few seconds to decide and when he saw no movement, he sighed again and took a step towards the kitchen.

"Wait!" Maggie whined loudly. "Okay, I'll go up on my own." As she walked past him, her daddy gave her a firm swat on her butt. "Owwwww!" She exclaimed as she turned around to glare at him as she tried to rub the sting out.

"That was for taking your time to decide. By all rights, I should have gotten the spoon, but I decided to cut you a break."

"Thanks a lot," the tween said sarcastically as she turned back towards the stairs. The next swat she received didn't come as a surprise to her.

"Watch the attitude," her father warned as he followed her up to the second floor. Once in they were in her bedroom, Dave took a seat on her bed and waited while she slowly approached him. This was the part of fatherhood he hated. "Why are we here, Mags?" He asked when she finally stood in front of her. He tried to sound as gentle as possible when he spoke to her because he didn't want her to be afraid of him, he wanted her to be afraid of the consequences of her actions.

Maggie chewed her lip and stared at the floor. 'Because you're mean and my teacher is a jerk,' she wanted to say, but wisely didn't. "Because you think I was rude to Mrs. Miller," she finally said.

"I don't _think _you were rude to her, I KNOW you were, and you're lucky you're not sucking on a bar of soap right now because of it."

"Yeah, I'm real lucky," Maggie mumbled under her breath.

Dave heard her mutterings and decided to ignore them. "Take your jeans down," he told her and was surprised when she gave him a defiant look and shook her head.

"No way," she argued as she took a step back from him. "You can't spank me with my pants down if I'm also gonna get a spanking later!"

"Maggie, I am getting tired of arguing with you," Dave told her sternly. "Take your jeans down, _now_."

"Fine," the girl said, still not moving, "But you can't give me a lot of spanks then." As soon as she said the words, she could tell her dad had lost his patience, and she belatedly wondered whether it had been a good idea to annoy him right before he was going to take her over his knee.

As soon as the smart aleck words were out of his daughter's mouth, Dave reached forward, grabbed the waistband of her jeans and pulled her a few steps closer to him. "I'm the father here," he said as he unsnapped her jeans. "I'm the one who decides how many spanks you get." The pants slid down her legs as he gently pulled her over his lap. "And I'm the one who decides how much clothing there is between my hand and your bottom."

As her daddy said the last part, Maggie felt him grip the waistband of her panties. "Daaaadddddeeee!" She cried as she reached back to dry and stop him, but she was too late, her underpants had joined her jeans at her knees. Truth be told, she was surprised her daddy was spanking her at all. Sure, he had done so in the past, but usually it was her dad that handled her discipline; her daddy tended to react more to her tears and begging. She had a hunch that this wouldn't be the easy kind of spanking she had come to expect from her daddy. SMACK! Nope, not easy at all, especially if that first smack was any indication of how the rest of the punishment would go.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Dave felt horrible as he reddened his daughter's bottom; she was a stubborn kid and usually held back her tears for as long as possible, but they were only ten smacks into her punishment and she was already crying loudly.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

As bad as he felt about punishing her, he knew she needed this; he refused to let her become one of those spoiled kids he saw in the grocery stores and on TV.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Maggie needed the spanking to be over with…NOW! Her butt felt like a thousand bees were stinging it all at once and, she was fairly sure that if her daddy kept spanking her, her butt would catch on fire. There was a pause in the smacks and she began to hope he was finished. As he tipped her forward a little more, her hopes were dashed and she braced for impact. She knew that the worst was about to come, that he was about to spank her sit spots. "Owwwwwwww!" She yelled through her tears as he spanked the lower part of her butt and the upper part of her thighs. She knew she would be feeling it every time she sat for the next few hours.

Dave finished up with a few more smacks to her butt and then stopped and rubbed her back for a few minutes before pulling up her panties. Once they were in place, Maggie shakily got to her feet and began to frantically rub her bottom, while still sobbing. Dave couldn't stand to see her looking so forlorn, especially since he was the one who had made her that way, so he gently took her arm and pulled her onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried.

Once her tears slowed, Maggie found herself in desperate need for a tissue. Thankfully, her daddy seemed to read her mind and handed her one from the box on her night table. "I'm sorry, daddy," she said as she wiped her nose. "I shouldn't have been mean to Mrs. Miller; I actually really like her as a teacher."

"I know you are, Magpie," Dave said gently as he rocked her slightly. "You know I love you, right?"

The tween nodded her head. "Yep, and I love you too, even when you set my bottom on fire. You're not really going to spank me again tonight, are you daddy?" She asked, looking at him with her puppy dog eyes.

"You need to be punished for the other things you did," Dave told her. "But maybe we can wait a day or two before we take care of it, okay."

Maggie knew it was the best she would get, so she nodded into her daddy's chest. "Ok daddy."

"How about you grab your book bag and a nice cushion and come join me in the kitchen while I make supper?" Dave suggested as he stood his daughter up.

"M'kay," she said as she swiped her eyes one final time. She was glad he had suggested a cushion; because she had a feeling that sitting wasn't going to be too much fun for the foreseeable future.


End file.
